Waiting Out the Storm

Well, are you on the edge of your seats, nails bitten to the nub, wrought with worry for your ol' pal Jen?   Here I am, safe and sound and ready to blog.

Well, I learned something this past week.  It is that waiting out a storm feels just like waiting out the storm. It's weird, it causes confusion, disorientation.  As opposed to waiting for a storm, which is exhilarating and exciting and scary and ominous. I wouldn't recommend this for too long of a time, but there definitely is something to be said for the anticipation and suspense.

Monday we waited for it to come and the whole day we would convince ourselves that there "sure was a storm brewing" when really it was overcast and breezy and a little bit rainy, that's it.  I guess the sky was a bit darker that cast a weird shadow, but really it was a regular rainy day.  Then the day turned into evening and the winds picked up and it got eerie and highly irregular outside.  Kind of a quiet wind.  Like a scary part of a movie and suddenly there's no music and it makes it even scarier.   We had stayed in all day and I think my serious cabin fever distracted me from feeling any anxiety over the storm (also, i think i used up all my apocalyptic fears for Irene).

It blew and blew and we went outside for a minute and almost blew away so we came back in.  We all went to bed and slept soundly and in the morning there were stormy residuals but it was over.

Here are pictures of all the festivities from before, during and after.  I'll try to put them in order.

First, and probably foremost, here am I in my costume:

                                     

What am i?  A rebellious Vulcan. of course.  a) i wanted to wear a wig. b) i wanted to join Starfleet (at long last) and c) pointy ears.  In short, it's the perfect costume.  I loved it and it felt like a second skin. And you can be sure i will wear that outfit on more than one occasion. Welcome to the regular rotation of my wardrobe.

And, guess what else?

                                           

We won a prize for our pie!!!  It wasn't the overall winner but I can't tell you how ecstatic i was to win at all!! Totally unexpected. And frankly, we already have the apron so this hand towel will compliment nicely. (< -- to be said snootily. ) So excited.   It was a concoction from my imagination.  I was sending recipes to Sean two days before the cookoff--"Sean, what about this? or this?? Or this! This would be a good combo, right??"  with hardly any feedback.  What, are you busy or something?  Anyway, it ended up being a Pumpkin Coconut Custard Pie.  Half pumpkin pie, half coconut custard.  Try it for yourself.  I was so pleased. No pic.  That's how unceremonious we were in making it.

Here are other costumes:

                                           

Tony Stark.  Sean, that evil genius, put a battery-operated LED light up his shirt and BAM--cool costume. Little bit jealous.

Julian's costume was adorable and perfect and we feel we hit the bullseye... on a completely different target.

                                       

What, you say? He's not a jedi?  No, actually. Believe it or not, he isn't.  Though it was SPOT ON.   And now we have next year's costume. No, but it's ok.  I ventured to one of my Scary Places, a fabric store--ALL BY MYSELF.  I asked strangers: "what do i do with this? do i take up this ream?  I think I do, right? [digging up memories visiting fabric stores of  yore with my mom] Is this called a ream?!"  *hyperventilating* And i may or may not have taken several pictures of everything in question to send to Sean so he'd tell me what to do.  We borrowed a sewing machine and, watching youtube videos on how to thread a bobbin, Sean got it going and whipped up Julian's costume to be...

The Old Dark Frog! from the story The Shivers, as told by Frog, from Frog and Toad, beloved by all of us.   The concept was adorable and Julian was too, but yeah, totally looks like a jedi.  Though he did have a jump rope in his pocket. 

Monday was spent looking at the dark boiling sky, everyone off work, just waiting at home.  Monday night was spent feeling that at any moment our house would be pulled from the ground and we'd see out the window an old hag on a bike. It gave an extra spooky ambiance by making the lights flicker all night long. I got so antsy waiting for the power to go off I wanted to yell, "just do it already!" and just turn off all the lights and pretend.  But it never happened, and thankfully so. 

Many people spent the 2 days indoors baking and cleaning. We did a bit of that but mostly we just participated in super random projects and activities. For example, we made a pumpkin using our cool mosaic blocks:

                                           

Each of us was in charge of an activity. That one was mine. Also mine was bobbing for apples which was fun and funny, as is this picture:

                                

I totally soaked my head in that bowl getting my apple, which reminded me why nobody likes to play bobbing for apples, and I held Julian's apple at the surface for him so he could get a grip but all he did was just keep taking bites out of it while i graciously held it for him inside a bowl of water.  Also, i saved this pic as bobapples which i thought should be Sean's alias, which makes me laugh because I'm a simple girl.  Hi, I'm Bob Apples.  Nice to meet you.

Julian's activity was Chutes and Ladders. I almost won and then fell down the big slide, if you must know. And yeah, it still stings a little.    

Sean's was building a rocket.  He made one using a glue container, lime juice, and baking soda.  We went outside and he launched it and it shot 20 feet in the air and I wanted to do it too. What started out as a simple activity turned into Operation: GJLFR, or Get Jen to Launch a Freakin' Rocket.  I asked Sean to take video of it and he did, for each and every attempt.  A short film sequence, and i should have combined them but then you wouldn't get to hit the play button a bunch of times.

Trial 1

Trial 2

Trial 3

Trial 4

Trial 5

Trial 6

Six time's the charm! And it was very satisfying.  

Julian and I made silly food faces which was pretty good considering we had no food in the house. 

                               

This is funny because I really could have/should have made them out of our food storage food (see previous post).  

I made Sean and Julian go out on Monday to get us some stuff.  That's right, I put my family in danger. What, it was in the daytime and we needed groceries.  What, i didn't realize the storm was coming until Sunday.  

While they were out i texted Sean, "maybe some sandwich rolls?"  and he sent me this pic:

                          

Which made me laugh.  Ahh.... ok.  

He also sent this:

                                   

Tuesday we ventured out for a short walk to see the town. it was the usual post-mega-storm scene. Broken trees and limbs, some crashed upon cars or buildings. :( 

                                        

It is so weird to emerge from our houses, kind of bleary-eyed, a little nervous, out to survey the damage.   

We thought all the trees would be bare but some held on.  But the thrashen leaves did give us some lovely potpourri. 

                              

And it was a strange yet appropriate feeling watching the stormy aftermath with all the halloween decorations. 

                                         

It made for a very scary Halloween Eve, but not one I particularly recommend. 

Happily, we were still able to celebrate. Julian and I went trick-or-treating with friends and it was way too much fun and I so did not stay out long enough.  After a while though he got tired and we did some lazy trick-or-treating, or drive-by trick-or-treating.

                                       

Sometimes he'd hold out his bucket. Sometimes i would.  Sean got to join us in the end. His work has drivers so they sent him a car and he went into the city while everyone else was stranded home because no trains were running which absolutely boggles the mind. More on that later.

Sometimes our path would be blocked by a huge fallen tree so we'd turn back.  It's crazy.

 I'll end this now but I have a lot more to say about this storm and the aftermath.  I'll just give a quick prologue:  Monday night I was glued to Facebook and getting news and pictures that my brains were leaking out my eyeballs (eww--happy halloween!).    I saw a lot of pictures and some of them were ridiculous, looking like they were stills taken from The Day After Tomorrow--obviously fake.  But then some were like this, of our beloved Jane's Carousel and it really does break your heart. So eerily beautiful, is it not?

More to come.  Meanwhile, to have a laugh, click here to read a letter from Sandy herself.  So many good lines. Kudos to James.